USTA changes membership structure - Adults bear the brunt of the costs? Last minute discount this week!

I received an e-mail this morning from the USTA announcing changes to their membership structure.  The e-mail was titled "Key Changes to your USTA Family Membership" and I received it because my wife and I play USTA and I signed us up under a family membership several years ago.  I don't know if members not using a family membership received this (or a similar) e-mail or not.

I signed us up using a family membership for a few main reasons.  First, it was a discount over two individual memberships, and related, it meant we didn't get multiple copies of Tennis magazine which we don't need.  Second, it got our memberships synchronized.

Well, it appears the family membership is gone, and they will only offer individual memberships going forward.  So there goes the discount families can get and I'm guessing once we are changed to individual, we'll begin getting two copies of Tennis magazine which is no value to us and just contributes to wasting another tree.

Additionally, it e-mail says memberships will only be one year, apparently the multi-year renewals, and associated discount, are now gone and we'll have to renew every year at the regular rate.  Now, in my case the family membership we got was a multi-year one and doesn't expire for a few years so these changes won't affect us right away, but I imagine a lot of members will be impacted in the next year or two.

The olive branch the USTA offers is a 50% discount on extending/renewing your Adult/Senior membership one year, but the offer is only for three days as it expires at the end of 2020.  As my family membership is still current, I can't take advantage of this offer, but if you can, use promo code GOPLAY50 during the checkout process.  Please let me know if this works for you or if it doesn't, what your situation is.

The above changes are a bit of a downer, so was there anything good in the e-mail?  After all, the e-mail leads with this:

"The USTA’s mission is to promote and develop the growth of tennis. We are pleased to announce that we are making key changes to our membership, which we believe will lessen barriers, provide better value, and overall create a better experience with the USTA."

What I just highlighted doesn't seem to promote the growth of tennis as it does away with discounts that we've had in the past (not withstanding the 3 day discount I can't take advantage of) which increases barriers and provides less value.  So what in what they are announcing is going to aid in the growth of tennis?

The good seems to be for Juniors and Organizations.

Junior membership will now be no cost and Juniors will be able to sign-up and play in sanctioned tournaments or leagues without first purchasing a USTA membership.  This is good news and should make it easier for parents to get their kids involved in USTA sanctioned events.

Starting in early 2021, USTA Organization membership will also be no cost.  This also seems like a good thing but I'm not sure what the cost structure was like in the past.

The e-mail includes a link to a page titled "Important Membership Changes" which summarizes things like this:

• Junior membership (under age 19) is available at no cost
• Adult membership is $44 and Senior membership (70+) is $42
• Organization membership is now available at no cost
• We no longer offer the following memberships: Family, Adult 3-year, Adult 5-year, Senior 3-year, Senior 5-year, or Lifetime.

It also states a reason for the changes is to "simplify our membership offerings to better service our customers and open up opportunities for better benefits".  If there really is better service and benefits, Adult and Senior members may not miss the discounts and convenience of family and multi-year memberships, but the USTA will need to deliver on that for folks to not walk away from these changes feeling they lost something.

If you have an existing family or multi-year membership, those will be honored, but you will have to convert to individual memberships renewed one year at a time once that expires.

The FAQ also notes provisions for pro-rated refunds for those memberships recently paid for that are now free.

To be honest, I'm not sure why the USTA didn't just do away with all fees to be a member, well, I do, they didn't want to lose those membership fees from Adults and Seniors who they figure are able to and will keep paying.  But the key segment to the shrinking of USTA League play is those under 40, notably those in their 20s, and having to pay a membership fee just to gain access to leagues where they then have to pay another fee per league, is certainly a barrier and may contribute to why younger players are not joining as quickly as older players are leaving.

What do you think?  The no cost memberships for Juniors and Organizations seem good and should lower barriers to playing tennis, but did the USTA need to do away with family and multi-year memberships for Adults and Seniors at the same time?  Were you taking advantage of those and will their absence change your view or participation in USTA events?

2021 PNW USTA Leagues postponed until March

In my section (Pacific Northwest), our Winter leagues start right away in the new year, generally the first or second weekend of January.

Unfortunately, the Governors of Washington and Oregon increased COVID-19 restrictions about three weeks ago and those included no indoor tennis, and should those restrictions continue into 2021, that makes playing USTA League matches are a no go.

There have been petitions circulated asking for indoor tennis to be exempt from the restrictions as it is proven to be a safe form of exercise, but apparently so far, no takers on granting that request.

Because of this, and the short-term outlook of COVID-19 numbers not improving, it appears the restriction will not be lifted soon, and as a result, the PNW section sent out notice today that 2021 Winter league play would not begin until at least March 5.

That may seem like a pretty extreme adjustment, a full two months, but a lot goes into planning and coordinating a league from confirming team to securing courts from facilities and creating a schedule bringing the teams and courts together.  It also doesn't make sense to start league play immediately upon restrictions being lifted, especially with 40 & Over injuries could be rampant if that were the case, so some ramp up time makes sense.

A delay until March 5 (or later) throws a monkey wrench into the rest of the schedule as well, and the e-mail mentions plans are being worked on to allow for all leagues to be played leading up to local playoffs and Sectionals, but until more is known about when restrictions may be lifted, no dates or plans can be shared.  We will all have to remain patient.

Note, league play is going on in quite a few sections, but not all, and should suspension of play continue well in to 2021, it will begin to introduce doubt into whether 2021 leagues can be completed and correspondingly, Nationals be held.  It would be really unfortunate if Nationals were canceled for two years running so let's hope we find a way to get leagues going again in all or at least most sections very soon.

TennisLink is officially gone ... for tournaments

I wrote last week about the new Play Tennis site for looking for USTA tournaments, observing that TennisLink seemed to be being retired for tournaments starting in 2021, the new site being the sole place players will search for and register for tournaments starting January 1st.

Well, today the USTA sends out an e-mail officially confirming that is the case.  The e-mail has the subject "Your New Destination for Registering for 2021 USTA Tournaments" and provides the same link I did to the new Play Tennis site, with a suggestion to bookmark it, which is a good thing as it wasn't easy to navigate to.

Note, you may also see the new site referred to as "Serve Tennis", which it was in a newsletter from my section also received today.

I did visit the site again and noticed some changes have been made already, notably rather than having you enter just a location in the search box, you can now specify the category (Junior, Adult, Wheelchair) and date range for the initial search.  Previously, category and date were filters you applied after searching on location.  It is nice to see they are trying to continue to improve it as it launches, so hopefully stay tuned for more.

I also see that there are now 773 tournaments listed, up from 420 a little over a week ago, and 105 are Adult tournaments, up from 35 previously.

The sorting by date still doesn't work, but hopefully that will be fixed soon.  And the distance filter is interesting in that it offers a fine grained control from 10 to 50 miles, but above that is only unlimited.  I think this should change to probably offer 10, 50, 100, 500, and unlimited.

What do you think?  Will you be looking for tournaments to play in as 2021 starts?

With no USTA League 2020 year-end ratings, can you still appeal? Will you appeal? Let me know!

2020 has been a strange year in many ways, and USTA League tennis has not been immune from its share of strangeness.  Leagues suspended, Nationals canceled, and no 2020 year-end ratings are a few of the highlights, or should I say lowlights.

On that last point, we would normally have had year-end ratings published in the last few days and I'd be writing several blog articles a day with observations and analysis (like this or this), and players would be reacting to who was/wasn't bumped up or down, and scrambling to figure out the rosters for upcoming league play.

Some players unhappy with their year-end rating would also be appealing their rating as we speak.  These are players who were bumped up or down and didn't think should have been, or weren't and thought they should have been.

There are standard rules for auto-appeals and players can click a button on TennisLink and get that decision immediately, but does that still apply now?

As I understand it, the button still works, but the short answer is no you won't have an appeal granted if it wasn't when your rating was published, ... well ..., for the most part.

When you click the appeal button, it is appealing your most recent year-end rating to the hundredth, and with no new year-end ratings being published, that is unchanged so the response to appealing should be the same no matter how many times or when you click the button.  Except ...

My experience is that the USTA periodically changes the appeal rules or thresholds, and when they do that, the new rules go into TennisLink and are used when the appeal button is pressed, even if the rating being appealed was already denied under the old rules.

For example, there is a 2021 regulation change for players 70+ that says an appeal down will be automatically granted, subject to standard DQ rules for appealed players.  I've been told of a player who had appealed when 2019 ratings came out and was denied, but is 70+ and appealed again in the past week or so and had it granted, so this appears to be a case of new appeal rules being applied resulting in a granted appeal where it wasn't granted in the past.

Now, it is possible the USTA modified appeal rules/thresholds that are not public and published in the regulations, so if you want to appeal your rating and were denied in the past, now is probably the time to try again as it might work, but there is no guarantee, and if it doesn't work I doubt the answer will change until 2021 ratings are published (fingers crossed!) a year from now.

If you do click the appeal button, leave a comment or send me an e-mail with the result, particularly if it is granted.  Gathering this data helps me figure out what appeal rules are being applied.

So, what if your auto-appeal doesn't work?  Are you out of options?

For (perhaps) this year only, the answer is no, there is another option.  The USTA's COVID-19 FAQ has a Q/A regarding players who feel they are no longer playing at their published rating and a new option for a manual appeal.  Give what I wrote about it a few weeks ago a read for all the details.

So does this new manual appeal work?  I've heard of a few handful of players that have tried, and so far, all but one have been turned back by the section level appeal, and just one has been forwarded to National for review.  So it appears the criteria to be considered are pretty stringent, and in all likelihood very few players meet it and would have their appeal granted.

But again, if you contact your section to request this manual appeal, please let me know and the result either way.

Looking for a 2021 USTA tournament? Welcome to USTA Play Tennis!

The demise of TennisLink has been rumored for many years, some of it wishful thinking by those forced to use it, but some of it based on reports and news we've heard from the USTA about replacing it.

I wrote a few months ago about some forthcoming changes coming, namely around tournaments at first, and it appears those changes are imminent.

If you go to TennisLink Tournaments, the Find a Tournament and Advanced Search are still there, but searching for tournaments in 2021 results in none being shown.  However, if you go to the new PlayTennis site, or more specifically the tournament search there, you will find 2021 tournaments there.  It appears TennisLink is being retired for tournaments, junior and adult, effective the start of the new year and the new site will be used for searching and registering for them going forward.

I note the specific tournament search page because as I write this, it isn't easy to navigate to.  There may be some ways to get there somewhere, but I found no link to it on the PlayTennis main page nor TennisLink, and on the main USTA site you can find a link but have to know just where to go.  So just use the direct link I gave.

Once there, you can search by location and do a variety of filtering based on Junior/Adult/Wheelchair, different genders or age ranges, section/district, event type, or distance from the search location.  It would be nice to be able to search on a name as well but that is missing right now.  You can sort by distance from the search location or date, although the date sorting doesn't seem to be working as I write this and there are some other growing pains typical of a new site you may run across.

There are an increasing number of tournaments showing up, 420 last I checked, but 90+% of them are junior tournaments, so those of us adults looking for senior or NTRP tournaments in 2021 are going a bit wanting right now.  Only 35 Adult tournaments listed and only 2 remotely close to me means no tournaments in my area for awhile it appears.

Now, it is a new system and Tournament Directors and other staff need to be trained and switch to using it and that may take some time, but it appears to be a USTA sanctioned tournament, it will have to be on the new site.  Throw in COVID, reduced staff from layoffs, and TDs being unsure if they'll be able to hold their events and I'm sure that explains why tournaments are slow to show up, but we are less than a month from 2021 now so let's hope more tournaments are added soon.

For those that play USTA League, an obvious question is if/when will leagues use the new site?  As I wrote before, I'm sure that is in the plans but I'm guessing it won't be ready for 2021, so 2022 at the earliest.